QIB Reports 10% Increase in H1 Profit to QR1.17BN

Total assets of the bank expanded 9.2% to QR147bn, mainly driven by growth in the financing activities. The assets had grown 5% against December 2016 levels.

Financing activities have now reached QR110bn, having grown 13.6% and 11.7%, compared to that in June and December 2016 respectively. Customer deposits saw 2% growth year-on-year to QR97bn.

Total income grew 18.4% to QR3.15bn with income from financing and investments surging 22% to QR2.79bn, reflecting the healthy growth in the bank’s core operating activities.

The bank’s total expenses shrank 1.5% to QR547mn during January-June this year. Strict cost controls supporting higher operating revenues enabled the lender to enhance operational efficiency (cost-to-income), which was brought down to 25.3% at the end of June 30, 2017, compared to 30.4% in the corresponding period of 2016.

QIB was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing financing assets to total financing assets at around 1%, one of the lowest in the industry, reflecting the quality of the bank’s financing assets portfolio and its effective risk management framework.

The Islamic lender continues to pursue the conservative impairment provisioning policy with the coverage ratio for non-performing financing assets moving up to 118% at the end of six-month ended June 30, 2017, from 87% as on December 31, 2016.

Total shareholders’ equity reached QR14.3bn. Capital adequacy ratio, under Basel III guidelines, stood at 16.6% as on June 30, 2017, higher than the minimum regulatory requirements prescribed by Qatar Central Bank and Basel Committee.

In May 2017, Moody’s, a global credit rating agency, has for the first time assigned QIB’s long term deposit ratings at “A1”. In April 2017, Capital Intelligence affirmed QIB’s financial strength rating at ‘A’ and on the same month; Fitch also affirmed QIB’s long term issuer default rating at ‘A+’ and Standard &Poor’s reaffirmed QIB’s rating at “A-”.

Source: gulf-times